Iran's Judiciary Chief Insists On Use Of Public Hangings

The head of Iran's judiciary announced today that "hoodlums and rapists" will be harshly dealt with by the legal system, the daily newspaper Ebtekar reports.

In its Monday issue, Ebtekar writes that Ayatollah Larijani told a meeting of justice department administrators: "Armed robbers and rapists have been hanged in public, and in the coming year our efforts will become even more serious." He added that there will be no mercy in carrying out such sentences.

In recent weeks, several reports of gang rapes have made headlines in the Iranian media.

Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani

The head of the Supreme Court, Ayatollah Ahmad Mohseni Gorgani, previously had said that the head of the judiciary has charged the Supreme Court with expediting the files of "hoodlums and convicts who disturb the security and peace of the public."

Ayatollah Larijani had calculated that processing these files as swiftly as possible would help society.

"Certain delays in confronting hoodlums, rapists and disturbers of people's peace and security would no longer provide a safe corner for these criminals, and the judiciary must act quickly and carefully to process these cases," the head of the judiciary had said.

He had stressed that the judiciary would take less than a month to attend to these files, which are certain to attract the death penalty.

There has been a sharp rise in executions in Iran since the beginning of the year, prompting concern from human rights groups both within Iran and abroad.